Blasphemy By Sandra Beasley Analysis

Fall comes around, the leaves begin to fall, and students begin to study poetry. They sit and wonder, “Why does poetry matter?”, they protest against their teachers’ choice to focus so much on poetry. But, poems have the ability to help many people if they're looked at for more than just the rhyming of fancy words. In the essays Blasphemy and Earning Our Laurel Leaves the authors, Martin Espada and Sandra Beasley, write about the power that poetry ultimately has. Although poetry is beneficial to readers, it’s also valuable to writers. The power gives to a writer can be simply illustrated by the poem Severely Queer by Lucas Mathieu D. Poetry matters because it can both allow readers to find comfort in difficult situations, and allow writers to express
Everyone goes through tough times, like breakups for example and reading poems about getting over tough times can aid in the healing of a broken heart. Imagine how many people wouldn’t have been able to get over their tough times if they didn’t have poetry. In the essay Blasphemy written by Martin Espada, he writes about a man named Sam Hamill who found serenity in poetry. Espada reports that “the poet (Hamill) concludes that he is ‘the luckiest son-of-a-bitch alive.’” Espada claims that “It was his (Hamill’s) ‘dumb luck’ to discovery poetry.” Sam Hamill was a troubled child who was in and out of jail at the age of 14, yet that all turned around when he discovered poetry and became a poet. Poetry can also inspire people who aren’t even searching for inspiration. Sandra Beasley states in her essay Earning Our Laurel Leaves that: “poems can inspire and spur action: something as simple as the right metaphor can shift the reader’s understanding.” Both authors infer that poetry is very valuable and that it can help people in many ways. Poetry has the power to both aid and inspire people by simply just